Dear all, A reminder that Nathan Hawkins (Gonville and Caius) will be giving a paper entitled “Paired Quantified Modal Logic" (abstract below) at the Serious Metaphysics Group today.
The seminar will run in our usual time from 4:30 to 6:00pm, in the Board Room of the Philosophy Faculty. For the remaining speakers we will have during Easter, see our term card here: https://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/seminars-phil/SMG Hope to see you there, Carlo Abstract In standard quantified modal logic [QML] semantics, atomic formulae are true or false relative to a world and a set of individuals at that world. As a result it is unable to parse sentences such as 'I could have been taller than I am'. These sentences speak of a relationship between individuals relative to multiple worlds. Lewis's counterpart theory is one way to handle such cases. Counterpart theory is a theory of first-order logic that uses a relation of similarity rather than identity to account for modal talk. This is a distinct metaphysics that gives rise to peculiarities that many find objectionable. As an alternative, I introduce the semantics of 'paired quantified modal logic'. Paired QML handles the problematic cases while retaining standard features of modal logic: modal operators, and identity. In addition, paired QML semantics produce peculiar, but interesting, results when applied to frames other than S5. These results express intuitive consequences when interpreted in temporal and open future contexts. _____________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the CamPhilEvents mailing list, or change your membership options, please visit the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents List archive: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEventsArchive Please note that CamPhilEvents doesn't accept email attachments. See the list information page for further details and suggested alternatives.
